Peter Halley, New Paintings, Maruani Mercier
Avenue Louise 430, Brussels
6 September – 27 October, 2018
In the suite of new paintings on display at Maruani Mercier, Halley continues to revisit the compositional possibilities afforded by his cells and conduits. Since the inception of these basic motifs in 1981/2 and their first public airing at International with Monument in 1985 (the seminal East Village gallery that launched the careers of, amongst others, Jeff Koons, Ashley Bickerton and Meyer Vaisman), Halley has explored innumerable permutations and iterations of this limited formal lexicon within strictly controlled parameters. Read as motifs of isolation and yet also of connection, Halley’s compositions explore hermetic physical spaces, the modes of linkage between them, and the various psychological implications of such within the urban context of a post-technological society.
Supported by his signature, extra-thick stretcher frames, themselves possessed of an impeccable architectonic object-quality, Halley’s works display a penchant for sumptuous colour both joyous and jarring in their jangling harmonies. Day-glo combinations, almost perfect, manufactured even, in their flatness, are juxtaposed with supreme balance alongside the roll-a-tex medium, a kind of bumpy stucco surface render which creates an enduring textural interest.
Derived and evolved from the modernist grid, Halley’s paintings are simultaneously readable as landscape, architecture, circuitry, even product. By continuing to connect the central tenets of geometric abstraction with the actualities of the urban and digital landscape, Halley has formulated an iconic template/pictogram of key experiences in contemporary life.
On view until October 27th 2018
About MARUANI MERCIER
Representing twenty artists, MARUANI MERCIER is a contemporary art gallery. Since opening its doors in 1995 it has focused on established American artists from the ‘80’s. The gallery has maintained a long-term representation of influential artists like Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Peter Halley, Jonathan Lasker, McDermott & McGough, and Sue Williams.
Gallery website
maruanimercier.com
About Peter Halley
Peter Halley was born in New York City in 1953. He received his BA from Yale University and his MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1978. Halley is part of the generation of Neo-Conceptualist artists that first exhibited in New York’s East Village, including Jeff Koons, Haim Steinbach, Mayier Vaisman and Ashley Bickerton. These artists became identified on a wider scale with the labels Neo-Geo and Neo-Conceptualism, an art practice deriving from the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Focussing on the commodification of art and its relation to gender, race, and class, neo-conceptualists question art and art institutions with irony and pastiche.
Artist website
peterhalley.com
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